Distrust of Science and
Expertise in General
The COVID-19 pandemic not only
revealed a growing chasm between the parties on questions of trusting science,
but it also accelerated the widening of that chasm. This happened primarily
because the Republican Party politicized a public health crisis. When wearing
masks to protect others (and self) and getting vaccinated became political
signifiers instead of commonsense behaviors, the gap between the two parties in
terms of serious illness and unnecessary death became quite stark. In recent
months, as immunity has increased generally through mediocre vaccination levels
and the prevalence of those who have been infected, COVID deaths and
hospitalizations have transitioned from affecting primarily the unvaccinated to
the elderly. But for a time, the chances of dying from COVID were far larger if
you were Republican.
I’m not sure what lies at the root
of the Republican distrust of science. Perhaps it is merely the expected result
of less educated Americans gravitating toward the GOP. But why do they lean
Republican, especially when other GOP policies penalize them? The answer
probably has a lot to do with the conservative echo chamber and the message
that is being broadcast through conservative media outlets. Regardless of the
cause, though, the results are not in question. They can be and have been measured.
A recent Pew Research Center survey, for instance, showed that 36 percent of respondents who are or lean Republican had no (or not much) trust in scientists as of December 2021. This is up from 27 percent in June 2016 and up from 14 percent in April 2020 (I’m not sure why the percentage dropped almost by half in those four years). By contrast, only 10 percent of respondents who are or lean Democrat have no (or not much) trust in scientists. This number has decreased from 18 percent in June 2016 and increased just slightly from 9 percent in April 2020. The numbers are similar for trust in medical science. So, why the drastic change during the pandemic’s worst months among Republicans? I’m sure it is largely due to the politicizing of a public health crisis. But it probably goes beyond this, as evidenced, for instance, in the difference between the two parties on questions such as climate change.
But again, this growing gap between the parties on questions of science is likely inseparable from the education gap that is also growing. On average, the more education a person has, the more that person tends to move toward liberal stances and causes. I suspect also that the prevalence of conspiracy theories on the right has an effect on Republican distrust of science. Conspiracy theories, by and large, are a refuge for the ignorant who want to appear intelligent. They are the lazy person’s path to pseudo-expertise.
This would be less concerning if Republican
leaders were encouraging their constituents to seek out good information and
get as much education as possible. But in the Trump years (which the GOP seems
still stuck in), ignorance became a point of pride. Republican thought leaders disparaged
“experts,” as if knowing something was actually a character flaw. I’m not sure
what can be done to change this, but I am concerned about the percentage of
Latter-day Saints who have embraced the Republican values, including the
embrace of disinformation, regardless of what their religion says about
intelligence and in spite of their leaders’ warnings against getting
information from questionable sources.
I’m not saying that science is
always right. Of course it isn’t. But science is self-correcting. It is always
changing its conclusions when better evidence or better analysis comes along.
In fact, the heart of the scientific enterprise is to question methods and conclusions.
So a trust in science includes, by default, an awareness that science will
constantly seek better information and demand rigorous examination of that
information. The results of the scientific method cannot be questioned. They
are all around us, including, or course, the computer I am writing this blog
post on and the device you are reading it on.
